A businessman who brought a High Court case to compel Bank of Ireland Life to pay out €1 million on foot of an insurance policy has settled the action.
The insurance company had claimed the policy was for £100,000 (€127,000) and not the £1 million (€1.27 million) alleged.
The case was settled at the High Court yesterday just before the third day was due to start.
Company director David McInerney from Cork had, in proceedings brought in the name of his company, Digibiz Ltd, sought payout of £1 million life insurance after his wife Rosarie died in October 2001.
Mr McInerney claimed he and his wife had understood the cover was for £1 million, while Bank of Ireland Life insisted it was for £100,000 and that references to the amount of £1 million on policy documents held by the McInerneys was due to a "clerical error" which had been corrected.
The defence claimed the insurance was in the amount of £100,000 which was paid out to Mr McInerney. It also claimed Mr McInerney could not have thought the sum insured was £1 million when the premium payable was £40.01 a month.
Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne heard two days of the claim by Digibiz, a computer software company with an address at Euro Business Park, Little Island, Cork, against New Ireland Trading Assurance Company plc trading as Bank of Ireland Life.
The claim was about the exact value of an insurance policy effected in February 1999 by Digibiz, of which Mr McInerney was a director with his late wife.
Ms McInerney died after contracting Hodgkinson's disease and the claim followed her death.
In evidence, Mr McInerney said he and his wife met a bank official at the Bridge Street, Cork, branch of Bank of Ireland, on February 8th, 1999, about insurance cover.
They had gone to get cover of £100,000 but the £1 million was brought up and, after that, it was his belief the cover was for £1 million, he said. That figure was "burned indelibly in my mind" when he left the meeting with the bank official, he said.